It’s been a while since I last reviewed a Razer product, which is kind of surprising considering the number of Razer products I have sitting on my desk. If memory serves me, I’m pretty sure the last item I reviewed was the Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition Laptop, which was incredible, but it was more aimed at productivity for film and photography. Weighing in at just under 2kg, and less than 2mm thick, the Razer Blade 14 Gaming Laptop is Razer’s “most portable blade in their arsenal,” and we’ve been given a chance to try it out.

At first, I wasn’t quite sure what to think. The box it came in looked like every other laptop box, so it was quite a surprise when I found it filled with thick protective packaging that protected the power supply and another significantly smaller box. Just glancing at this, you could almost think that they’d forgotten to pack the actual product, but inside this smaller package was a perfectly clean black panel sunken into a plastic shell, emblazoned with the tri-serpent Razer logo we’re all familiar with, and removing the laptop from its protective shell, I stopped to wonder if maybe I had been sent a tablet instead.

The anodized precision-milled aluminium case is a beautiful matte black, resistant to fingerprints, and really durable for gaming on the go, and it’s been crafted from a single block of aluminium, so aside from the hinges, there are almost no visible joins or splits, offering a beautifully clean finish. The only thing that makes it stand out is the illuminated Razer logo.

Neatly tucked away in the sides are two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, two USB4 Type-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 connector, and the 3.5mm headset connection, along with the power port and a Kensington Lock for your security needs. It might not seem like much, but that’s still enough to connect a mouse, keyboard, and headset, and it’s neatly crammed into a 14” laptop.

While I’m normally an Intel fanboy, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS 8-Core processor performed quite well, and the Nvidia RTX 4070 supplied in the unit we received was averaging 175FPS during 3D DX10 tests on User Benchmark. 16GB of 5600 MHz of RAM also helps to quickly boot up the system, quickly and effectively flipping through a number of open apps and helping to load games stored on the 1TB SDD nice and quickly, so you’ll be gaming in no time.

When it comes to actually playing games, it was a little harder to focus on the 14” screen. Running a QHD+ 2560×1600 16:10 resolution monitor with a 240Hz refresh rate, the Razer Blade 14 offers buttery smooth motion at the expense of having significantly smaller HUD elements, unless you switch it back to FHD 1920×1080. Having said that, it’s a great size for gaming on the go.

For those not following along at home, my current game of choice is DayZ, and my desktop can average 75-80 FPS with the settings cranked too high while taking on hordes of zombies in a town. The Razer Blade 14 easily exceeds 120FPS using the same settings, and it stayed whisper quiet during my gaming session, all thanks to an Optimized Vapor Chamber Cooling system – a pleasant surprise considering how loud some of the recent computers I’ve reviewed have been.

Being a Razer product, Razer Synapse comes as standard, and this gives users Chroma Studio, which allows you to adjust the RGB keyboard effects to display as you see fit. You can also make use of Razer Cortex, software that lets you quickly and easily free up RAM while gaming, defrag your hard drive, and easily prioritise gaming by focusing processing power. It’s all tucked up in an easily-to-use program.

“The most portable Blade in our arsenal now has a greater source of power at its core” perfectly explains the Razer Blade 14. At less than 2kg and thinner than 18mm, it’s perfect for gaming on the go. Although running the 14” screen at the highest resolution might make it harder to see the finer details while gaming, having up to 10 hours of battery life will have you defeating opponents on your way to and from work in style.

Written by: Mathew Lindner